With most of the spring half marathon season cancelled in the wake of the Mar. 11 disasters, this year's Sapporo International Half Marathon will mark a return to the distance for many of Japan's top athletes. Scheduled to be run again with the 1:30 p.m. start time put in place last year times are unlikely to be fast in the peak of the summer heat, but both the women's and men's races should be thickly competitive. Sapporo will be broadcast live by Nihon TV on July 3. Overseas viewers should be able to watch online via Keyhole TV. JRN will be doing live English commentary via Twitter @JRNLive.

2010 World Half Marathon and 2009 World Cross-Country champion Florence Kiplagat (Kenya) leads the way in the women's race, her 1:07:40 PB more than a minute faster than the next best runner in the field, defending champion Yuri Kano (Second Wind AC). With Kano out of form for most of the last year and sub-70 women Yumiko Hara (Team Univ. Ent.) and Mika Okunaga (Team Kyudenko) likewise off their best of late, the biggest challenge to Kiplagat should come from a pair of talented debutantes, Megumi Kinukawa (Team Mizuno) and Sally Chepyego (Kenya/Team Kyudenko). Neither Kinukawa nor Chepyego are on the invited athlete list, but a source connected with Kinukawa confirmed to JRN that she is running in the general division and Chepyego's team page also lists her as running. Both women are fresh off World Championships A-standard 10000 m PBs, 31:10.12 for Kinukawa and 31:27.98 for Chepyego, and with similar performances should be key players in Sapporo. All Japanese eyes will be on Kinukawa, who made the all-time Japanese top four at 10000 m and top six at 5000 m in June. A 1:08:56 would be enough for her to make the all-time Japanese top ten, but whether that would be feasible in the predicted heat or enough to beat Kiplagat or Chepyego remains to be seen.

The last two Sapporo men's winners, Cyrus Njui (Kenya/Team Hitachi Cable) and Gideon Ngatuny (Kenya/Team Nissin Shokuhin) return to face 2:07 marathoner Stephen Kiprotich (Uganda), 2010 Asian Games marathon gold medalist Youngjun Ji (Korea) and invited elite Andrew Lemoncello (U.K.). Three of Japan's World Championships marathoners are entered, Yoshinori Oda (Team Toyota) leading Kentaro Nakamoto (Team Yasukawa Denki) and Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref.) with a 1:01:41 PB. Also on the list are a number of top domestic men who have been out of competition with injury over the last year and are looking to make strong comebacks, among them national record holder Atsushi Sato (Team Chugoku Denryoku), half marathon ace Masato Kihara (Team Kanebo), Ottawa Marathon course record holder Arata Fujiwara (Remo System AC), Hakone Ekiden legend Masato Imai (Team Toyota Kyushu) and track star Yu Mitsuya (Team Toyota Kyushu). With at least 20 Japanese men in the field holding PBs under dozens more at the next tier it is tough to predict who will hold up in the heat, but Sapporo will serve as a good preview of who is on top for the upcoming fall road season.

Akinobu Murasawa, Kenichi Jiromaru, Satoru Kitamura, Kazuya Watanabe and Bene Zama doing a long tempo in Yoyogi Park, 4/6/13. Members of '12 national champ Nissin Shokuhin team. Murasawa and Watanabe are new to the team this month.

Kenjiro Jitsui, working out in lane 4 again at Oda Field, 4/2/13. 2:08 Olympian.

The 1st Tokyo Marathon - 2/18/07

About Me

Born in Canada, grew up in the USA, and have lived in Japan since 1997. Ran XC at Mayo HS and Wesleyan Univ. Living in Shibuya next to Oda Field, Tokyo`s main public track.
I get a lot of requests for help with entering races in Japan. Please bear in mind before contacting me that most races close entry at least a month beforehand, often longer. Contact: larner (at) harriers.jp